Sparta, Ky. — Several top drivers from the NASCAR Monstery Energy Cup Series spent Tuesday at Kentucky Speedway performing a tire test for Goodyear, including last year's winner and series champion Martin Truex Jr.

Truex, who dominated last summer's Quaker State 400, won at the 1.5-mile track for the first time en route to his first championship. Some might say winning at Kentucky and capturing the series title is coincidental, but general manager Mark Simendinger says his track cuts down the likelihood of random winners.

"The 1.5-mile tracks helps to cut down the randomness of the outcomes," Simendinger said. "You go to the restrictor-plate tracks, you get a lot more random outcomes. You come here, we don't have these big, wholesale wrecks where half the field's gone."

But the constant key to winning at Kentucky is turn three, Simendinger said.

"Turn three is really ... what sorts them out," he said. "The drivers that really have a lot of skill, and now also a lot of experience, have continued to do well here. ... We've probably stratified it even more with the changes to one and two, and made it even more difficult for the outsiders to compete here."

And winning at Kentucky has also meant contending for a series title. Since 2012, three of the six champions – Brad Keselowski (2012), Kyle Busch (2015) and Truex Jr. (2017) were winners at Kentucky Speedway.

Due to weather concerns and time constraints, drivers weren't available to talk about the famous turn three, but they haven't been shy in the past about addressing the track's "character" changes.

The potential sale of NASCAR not a worry

If NASCAR really is up for sale, Simendinger said he would welcome

Reuters first reported the possible sale on April 7, saying NASCAR's France Family was working with Goldman Sachs.

More from that report:

The France family, which controls NASCAR, is working with investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) to identify a potential deal for the company, three sources said, cautioning that the deliberations are at exploratory stage and no agreement of any kind is certain.

The sources asked not to be identified because the deliberations are confidential.

NASCAR and Goldman Sachs declined to comment.

NASCAR could attract interest from media companies and private equity firms, according to the sources. The company’s exact valuation could not be established, though the sources said it could be worth several billions of dollars.

Kentucky Speedway is in a good spot, according to Simendinger, because his track's race weekend has become a regional event, which a lot of other tracks can't say.

"If there is change, I think it's all good," Simendinger said. "I've got the ultimate confidence in this marketplace and our team that I think we're going to get the best end of it, so I welcome it."

This season, Kentucky will only host NASCAR racing one week with the previous late-summer XFinity Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races heading to Las Vegas.

The National Football League and Major League Baseball both said they would continue to protect the integrity of their sports and their respective players' unions expressed the same feelings.

Simendinger, a member of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission and former president of Turfway Park, has a ton of knowledge when it comes to betting on horse racing and pari-mutuel wagering.

"I have not heard anything from NASCAR," Simendinger said. "I think everyone is waiting to see how everything shakes out with the major sports leagues."

Kentucky Speedway has more than $200 million invested in bringing the world's top drivers and racing to the Bluegrass State, according to Simendinger, and there would need to be compensation involved for his track if betting on the races occurred in Kentucky.